On this day in 1940, a rare October snow event began that would drop 1.5 inches. A calendar-day record 0.1 inches fell on this day and 1.4 inches the next day.
“Snow and ice felled electric wires and trees and disrupted traffic yesterday as the coldest mid-October weather in years gripped the Washington area,” the front page of The Washington Post reported on Oct. 20. “Planes were grounded at the Washington Airport shortly after flurries of snow began to fall here.”
Here are other notables from this date:
- Average high: 68
- Average low: 51
- Record high: 88 (1938)
- Record low: 30 (1880)
- Record rainfall: 2.73 inches (1906)
- Record snowfall: 0.1 inches (1940)
